How to Play Dots ('the Dot Game')

Dots is the name of a golf game in which the players earn points (called dots) for each of a series of achievements made during the round. At the end of the round, the golfer with the most dots on her scorecard is the winner.

Dots is also commonly called "the Dot Game" or "the Dots Game." The name comes from the way many golfers keep track of their points: When you write down your stroke-play score on each hole, underneath your score your also mark down a dot for each point you earned on the just-played hole. That makes it easy to count up the full number of dots at the end of the round. (But you can, if you prefer, just write down the number of your points earned on the hole, rather than dots.)

Alternate names for this game are Trash, Junk, Garbage, and Supplemental Bets among others.

What earns a dot in the Dot Game? Following are some common achievements and how much each is worth, but note that your group can use whatever criteria and point values you wish:

• Scoring par on a hole — 1 dot (point)
• Birdie — 2
• Eagle — 3
• Hitting the fairway with drive — 1
• Longest drive on a hole — 1
• Green in regulation — 1
• Closest to the pin — 1
• 1-putt — 1
• Making the longest putt on a hole — 1
• Sand save — 1
• Chip-in — 2

Some groups whose members have played together a long time wind up adding more and more point-scoring criteria over time and wind up with dozens of things that can earn a golfer dots. You can keep Dots simple by using just a handful of achievements, or you can make it a truly catch-all game by throwing everything you can think of in there.

And then there are negative points, the bad outcomes that subtract dots from your total. Some groups prefer to use only positive points. If your groups wants to include negative achievements, these are some of the common ones (again, you can add whatever you want and use any point values you prefer):

• Double bogey — -1 (minus-1)
• Trible bogey or worse — -2
• Hit into a bunker or water — -1
• Out of bounds — -1
• Lost ball — -2
• 3-putt — -1
• 4-putt or worse — -2

If you want to put some money on the line, you can bet Dots a couple different ways. One is just to agree before the round that the winner gets X amount from each of the other players. Another is to assign a monetary value to each point, tally up the dots at the end of the round, and pay out the differences.

You can play Dots in conjunction with any stroke-play scoring format, so long as each golfer in the group is playing his own ball into the cup on every hole.

More golf games:

• The Best at Something game
• How to play Disaster
• The Zookeeper game explained

Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Johnston, Scott. The Complete Book of Golf Games, 1999, Rowman & Littlefield.
The Quick Series Guide to Golf Games, 1998, Luxart Communications.
Swift, Duncan. The Golfer's Reference: Golf Games and Side Bets, 1999, Schaefer's Publishing.